Code Orange

The Subtle Doctor and Shadon grab their mics to discuss a recent anime (shocking I know!) named Orange, which aired in the Summer 2016 season.

Orange is a show that broaches a topic often not discussed in media or fiction: suicide. It’s mature and sombre depiction of the matter is worth praise and discussion, although the show isn’t without its flaws (Shadon in particular almost had an aneurysm at one point).

So join us with this bonus slice of Warui Deshou as Doc and Shads discuss Orange in depth and offer their thoughts both on the serious and the silly moments of the show, and of how we all can learn from it to be more open with each other and that there is always help out there for those traveling a darker road.

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About the author

Doc has been watching anime since the late 90s and writing about it since 2013. He'll talk your ear off on Twitter about Monogatari, Macross or Evangelion. When he's not curating his anime list, Doc can be found playing JRPGs, watching Liverpool Football Club lose or listening to hip-hop. But more than any of these things, he's proudest of being a father.

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2 Comments

An excellent podcast, mirroring many of my own feelings about Orange, including the screaming at the television. On the whole I thought the series was flawed, but got its core story right and was heart breaking in places, for all that it had a happy ending — Kakaru’s mother still committed suicide after all and could not be saved and that scene where he discovered her last message messed me up something good.

Nitpicking to be polite and I completely agree the show should’ve never gone into the mechanics of time travel, but theoretically it’s not entirely impossible for a black hole of a low enough mass to exist on Earth and not kill everybody. Micro black holes could theoretically exist, but fade away over time due to Hawking radiation. See Wikipedia for a rough explenation.

Also, it may just be the accent, but the writer of Timescape is Gregory Benford, not Benefit. Who is indeed not blessed with a great gift for characterisation.

Hey Martin, thanks for the kind words, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the cast!

I’ll freely admit I’m not close to a proper understanding of black holes, so I think in my depraved, psychotic episode on the cast I might have spoken above my knowledge level, so thank you for correcting me.

Still, the Bermuda Triangle? Really Orange? =p

I probably mispronounced Benford’s name as “Beneford” and then mangled it through my Mancunian twang, so again, credit for the correction. I haven’t reread Timescape in a while but it serves as a reasonable contrast to Orange. Whereas Orange succeeds at character and fails at science, Timescape is the opposite where it fails at character and succeeds at the science (arguably, since the science is theoretical although at least plauisble and rational). The two problems that sink that book versus what allows Orange to float though are 1) Orange’s character arcs are tied directly into the time travel element and the challenge it presents, whereas Timescape’s are domestic issues that aren’t really linked to the world ending event of the future timeline 2) Timescape’s resolution via JFK surviving his assassination through a long series of coincidences triggered by the messages feels weak as a payoff (although reasonable as an extension of how chaos theory works), as it isn’t due to direct action, while Orange’s of course is due to the direct work of our group of protagonists.

Timescape, in my opinion, only works as a fictional “proof of concept”. It is a solid skeleton around which the grisliest, thinnest strips of meat were wrapped. Orange was a rare treat which I found delightful but annoyingly still had a few pips in it. More of the same please waiter.

Microreviews aside, thanks again for chiming in Martin! Feel free to check out our other work if it takes your fancy!